Trumbull News Detail

Recent Fashion School Graduates Chosen to Compete in Supima Design Competition During New York Fashion Week

Posted Sep. 10, 2013

Two recent Kent State University Fashion School alumni competed in the Supima Design Competition, a fashion design contest that culminated in a New York Fashion Week runway show at Lincoln Center with a $10,000 grand prize.

Senior fashion design majors Will Riddle of Minerva, Ohio and Sylvia Bukowski of Chicago, Illinois competed against students from the Rhode Island School of Design, the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Savannah College of Art and Design. Each school in the competition was asked to select two graduating students as representatives. Accompanying them to New York City is associate professor of fashion Vince Quevedo who has served as Bukowski’s faculty mentor, and associate professor of fashion Sherry Schofield who served as Riddle’s mentor.

“Each contestant must create a capsule collection from Superior Pima Cotton fabrics supplied by the organization, and each contestant will show his or her collection on the runway in Lincoln Center during the September NYC Fashion Week,” Fashion School director J.R. Campbell explained as he announced the selected contestants at the Fashion School’s Annual Fashion Show.

While neither Riddle and Bukowski won the competition, this opportunity will still have a “jump-start” on their career.

“This opportunity is so amazing for these recent graduates. They could work their entire life and never get an opportunity to show their own capsule collection on the runway during New York Fashion Week,” Schofield said. “So to be showing their work, just months after graduation, is a once in a lifetime type of opportunity. And I know that our students are up for the task and will show well.”

Last April, the two senior design major were standouts in the Fashion School’s annual Fashion Show. Riddle was the winner of the Eveningwear/Formal Wear Award at this year’s Annual Fashion School Fashion Show, and Bukowski, won the Knitwear Collection Award.

“We were thrilled to have Kent State participating in the Supima Design Competition,” tweeted a representative from Supima.

Founded in 1954, Supima is a non-profit organization promoting American Pima cotton, a high-quality variety of cotton grown in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. The Supima Design Competition began in 2008.